Introduction to the Sociology of "Developing Societies"

Sociology of "Developing Societies"

General Editor: Teodor Shanin THEMATIC VOLUMES

INTRODUCTION TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF "DEVELOPING SOCIETIES"

Hamza Alavi and Teodor Shanin

SOCIALIST "DEVELOPING SOCIETIES"? (in preparation)

THEORIES OF SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION (in preparation)

REGIONAL VOLUMES

SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA Chris Allen and Gavin Williams

SOUTH ASIA Hamza Alavi and John Harriss (forthcoming)

THE MIDDLE EAST Talal Asad and Roger Owen

SOUTH-EAST ASIA John Taylor and Andrew Turton (forthcoming)

CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN (in preparation)

LATIN AMERICA (in preparation)

Introduction to the Sociology of "Developing Societies"

edited by Hamza Alavi and Teodor Shanin

M MACMILLAN PRESS

LONDON

Selection, editorial matter, and Introduction © Hamza Alavi and Teodor Shanin 1982 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission.

First published 1982 Reprinted 1983

Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world

ISBN 978-0-333-27562-7 ISBN 978-1-349-16847-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-16847-7

This book is dedicated to the memories of Orlando Letelier (1932-1976)

and Malcolm Caldwell (1931-1978)

Acknowledgments

The editors and publishers wish td thank the following, who have kindly given permission for the use of copyright material: Academic Press, Inc. (London) for extracts from Poverty and Population Control by Lars Bondestam; Carmen Balcells Agenda Literaria on behalf of Gabriel Garda Marquez for the article "The Death of Salvador Allende," translated by Gregory Rabassa, © 1974 by Gabriel Garda Marquez; Booker McConnell Limited for the advertisement placed in The Times Supplement on Malawi (6 July 1964); Cambridge University Press for an abridged version of an essay that appeared in The Capitalist World-Economy by Immanuel Wallerstein; Jonathan Cape Limited for an extract from ... and the Rain My Drink by Han Suyin, reproduced by permission of the author; Frank Cass & Co. Limited for "Class Formation as an 'Articulation' Process," abridged by Lionel Cliffe from his article "Rural Class Forma­tion in East Africa" published in Journal of Peasant Studies 4, no. 2 (January 1977); Chatto & Windus Limited and Oxford University Press, Inc. for extracts from The Country and the City by Raymond Williams (1973); Grove Press Inc. for extracts from The Other Mexico: Critique of the Pyramid by Octavio Paz, translated by Lysander Kemp, copyright © 1972 by the publisher: Journal of Contemporary Asia (Stockholm) for the article "Class and Revolution: The Empirical Peasantry, the Hypothetical Proletariat, and the Evasive Intelligentsia" by TeodorShanin, published in vol. l, no. I (1969) and expanded by the author into "Class, State, and Revolution: Substitutes and Realities"; Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. for the article "The Multinational Corporation and the Law of Uneven Development" by Stephen Hymer, from Economics and World Order from the 1970s to the 1990s, edited by Jagdish N. Bhagwati, copyright © 1972 by the publisher; Monthly Review Press for" A Morphology of Backwardness" from The Political Economy of Growth by Paul A. Baran; "The Disarticulation of Economy Within 'Developing Societies' " from Accumulation on a World Scale: A Critique of the Theory of Underdevelopment, vol. 1 by Samir Amin; "Imperialism: A Historical Survey" by Harry Magdoff, which is an expanded version of a chapter in 1mperialism: From the Colonial Age to the Present; and "Center, Periphery, and the Crisis of the System" abridged by Paul M. Sweezy from his Four Lectures on Marxism; New Left Review and the authors for the abridged versions "The Origins of Capitalist Development: A Critique of Neo­Smithian Marxism" by Robert Brenner, vol. 104 (1977), "White-Settler Colonialism and the Myth of Investment Imperialism" by Arghiri Emmanuel, vol. 73 (1972), "Nationalism and 'Development'" by Tom Nairn from his article "Marxism and the Modem Janus," vol. 94 (1975), and "Latin American Capitalism" by Fernando Henrique Cardoso, originally published as "Dependency and Development in Latin America," vol. 7 4 ( 1972); Pergamon Press Limited for an extract from World Development 6, no. 3 (1978) by Keith Griffin and Azizur Rahman Khan; The Times Newspapers Limited for extracts from The Times, "Towards Self-Sufficiency-an Editorial Comment" (6 July 1964), "A Message from the Prime Minister-Dr Hastings Banda" (6 July 1964), "Colonialism's Last Days: An Orderly De-Colonisation in Malawi" (7 July 1964), and "Reflections and Refractions on the Flow of Information," published in The Times Higher Education Supplement (28 March 1980); Weidenfeld (Publishers) Limited for an extract from The Age ofCapital1848-1875 by E. J. Hobsbawm; Zed Press Limited for an extract from The Wealth of Some Nations by Malcolm Caldwell.

Contents

JDre)face XI

Introduction 1

I. The Making of the Third World

1. Imperialism: A Historical Survey Harry Magdo)f)f 11

2. The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System: Concepts for Comparative Analysis Immanuel Wallerstein 29

3. The Origins of Capitalist Development: A Critique of Neo-Smithian Marxism Robert Brenner 54

4. Colonialism in the Words of Its Contemporaries: Cecil Rhodes, jules Harmand, Albert Beveridge, joseph Conrad, james Connolly 72

5. The Losers Eric Hobsbawm 78

6. Colonialism's Last Days: The "Emergency" in Malaya Han Suyin 81

7. Colonialism's Last Days: An Orderly Decolonization in Malawi The Times (London) 85

8. White-Settler Colonialism and the Myth of Investment Imperialism Arghiri Emmanuel 88

II. The Global Context

9. Pathways of Social Development: A Brief Against Suprahistorical Theory Karl Marx 109

10. Dependency and Development in Latin America Fernando Henrique Cardoso 112

vii

viii Contents

11. The Multinational Corporation and the Law of Uneven Development Stephen Hymer

12. Developing Societies as Part of an International Political Economy Michael Barratt Brown

13. The Structure of Peripheral Capitalism HamzaAlavi

III. Political Economy 14. A Morphology of Backwardness Paul A. Baran

15. The Disarticulation of Economy Within "Developing Societies" Samir Amin

16. Center, Periphery, and the Crisis of the System Paul M. Sweezy

1 7. Industrialization, Development, and Dependence Henry Bernstein

18. Poverty in the Third World: Ugly Facts and Fancy Models Keith Griffin and Azizur Rahman Khan

19. The Political Ideology of Population Control Lars B ondestam

20. The Dimension of Environment Malcolm Caldwell

21. Class Formation as an "Articulation" Process: East African Cases Lionel Cliffe

22. Workers in Developing Societies Robin Cohen

IV. State and Revolution 23. State and Class Under Peripheral Capitalism

HamzaAlavi

24. Class, State, and Revolution: Substitutes and Realities Teodor Shanin

25. Samuel Huntington and the End of Classical Modernization Theory Colin Leys

26. The Death of Salvador Allende Gabriel Garcia Marquez

128

153

172

195

205

210

218

236

252

260

262 279

289

308

332

350

V. Community, Culture, and Ideology 27. The New Metropolis Raymond Williams

28. Cities in Developing Societies Bryan Roberts

29. Family Structure and the Division of Labor: Female Roles in Urban Ghana Frances Pine

30. Culture of Dependency: Arts and Political Ethos

Contents IX

363 366

387

Octavia Paz 406 31. Learning to Be ... What? Shaping Education in

"Developing Societies" Roger Dale 408

32. Reflections and Refractions on the Flow of Information Anthony Smith 422

33. Nationalism and "Development" Tom Nairn 430

34. Ideology and Identity: An Approach from History Basil Davidson 435

VI. Appendix Further Reading on the Sociology of "Developing Societies" Chris Allen 459

Preface

The question of the so-called developing societies lies at the very heart of the political, economic, and moral crises of contemporary global society. It is central to relations of power, diplomacy, and war in the world we live in. It is decisive when the material well being of humanity is concerned, that is, the ways some people make a living and some people hunger. It presents a fundamental dimension of social inequality and of struggles for social justice. During the last generation it has also become a main challenge to scholarship, a field where the perplexity is deeper, the argument sharper, and the potential for new illuminations more profound. This challenge reflects the outstanding social relevance of the prob­lems. It reflects too an essential ethnocentrism that weighs heav­ily on contemporary social science. The very terminology that des­ignates "developing" or "underdeveloping" or "emerging" societies is impregnated with a teleology that identifies parts of Europe and the United States as "developed." Images of the world at large as rising unilinearly from barbarity to modernity (or vice versa, as a descent to hell) have often substituted for the analysis of actuality, as sim­plistic metaphors often are. To come to grips with a social reality that is systematically different from one's own, and to explain its specific logic and momentum, are most difficult conceptual and pedagogic tasks. It is the more so because the fundamental ques­tions about "developing societies" are not of difference only but of relationships past and present with the countries of advanced capi­talism and industrialization. It is in this light that we encounter, as analysts and teachers, not only a challenge to the "sociology of development," but a major challenge to radical scholarship itself.

The "Sociology of 'Developing Societies' " series aims to offer a systematically linked set of texts to be used as a maJor teaching aid at the university level. It is being produced by a group of teachers and scholars related by common interest, general outlook, and com­mitment sufficient to provide an overall coherence but by no means a single monolithic view. The object is, on the one hand, to bring relevant questions into focus and, on the other hand, to teach through debate. We think that at the current stage a "textbook" would nee-

XI

xii Preface

essarily gloss over the very diversity, contradictions, and inadequa­cies of our thought which must be focused on. On the other hand, collections of articles are often accidental in content. The for­mat of a conceptually structured set of readers was chosen as one sufficiently open to accommodate a variety of views within a coher­ent system of presentation. These readers bring together works by sociologists, social anthropologists, historians, political scientists, econ­omists, literary critics, and novelists in an intended disregard of the formal disciplinary divisions of the academic enterprise.

Three major alternatives of presentation stand out: first, a com­parative discussion of the social structures within the "developing societies," focusing on the generic within them; second, the explo­ration of the distinct character of the main regions of the "develop­ing societies"; third, consideration of context and content of theories of social transformation and change. Accordingly, the Introduction volume deals with the general issues of comparative study. Other volumes cover different regions, while the final volume is devoted to an examination of basiC paradigms of the theories of social trans­formation. The volumes taken together thus represent the three main dimensions of the problem area, leaving it to teachers and students to choose from them and to compose their own courses.

The topic is ideologically charged, relating directly to the outlook and the ideals of everyone. The editors and many of the contributors share a broad sense of common commitment, although there is among them a considerable diversity of political viewpoint and theoretical approach. The common ground may be best indi­cated in terms of three fundamental negations. First, there is an im pla­cable opposition to every social system of oppression of humans by other humans. That entails also the rejection of scholastic apologia of every such system, be it imperialism, class oppression, elitism, sexism, or whatever. Second, there is the rejection of "preaching down" easy solutions from the comfort of air-conditioned offices and campuses, whether in the "West" or in the "developing socie­ties" themselves, and of the tacit assumption of our privileged wis­dom that has little to learn from the common people in the "developing societies." Third, there is the rejection of the notion of scholastic detachment from social commitment as a pedagogy and as a way oflife. True scholarship is not a propaganda exercise, even of the most sacred values. Nor is it without social consequence, however conceived. There are students and teachers alike who think that indifference improves vision. We believe the opposite to be true.

Manchester, England, 1982 Teodor Shanin

Introduction to the Sociology of "Developing Societies"